The week before reality hits

Okay, so I’m not off to such a great start with the frequency of my blogs. I’m hoping that once I get used to my routine it will get a bit better, but in the meantime I apologize for the delay!

I’ve officially started working, although classes won’t start until later this week. Last Monday started a week of in-service meetings – from 8am to 3pm every day. I didn’t think it would be possible to have that much to cover, but we managed to fill almost every day. Although at times it was a bit dry, as a new teacher and new to the school, it was definitely beneficial to have things so clearly laid out for me – we covered everything from icebreakers among the staff, to grading procedure, to going over the student handbook, to a presentation from the administration, to taking the MAP tests our students take (where I learned I remember NOTHING past 7^th grade basic algebra and reiterated that grammar was never my strong point), and much much more.

Classes were supposed to start tomorrow, Tuesday August 7^th, but due to a large amount of construction projects (they re-did the image of the school: logo, colors, some of the facilities, etc) wrapping up at the last minute they decided to push back the start until Thursday so that they could make sure everything was 100% complete, and safe, before bringing all the kiddos back. I guess even if you’re an American school in Bolivia, you can’t make things finish at an American pace!

As of now, I have 20 students in my class, 6^th Grade Blue (the other teacher is 6^th Grade Red), 11 boys and 9 girls - it’s a bit more than I originally thought I would have, but definitely a manageable number. I’ve gotten the low-down on each student (strengths, weaknesses, personality, etc) from previous teachers to help me prepare – they are very good about sharing information about students amongst teachers, which I really appreciate. Although a lot of people have made comments about this 6^th grade being more gossipy and, lets face it, more like the real adolescents they are, than previous classes – I’m more interested/concerned in what it will be like to have students who are learning in English for the first time, thus at a below 1^st grade reading level, alongside those who have a reading level of a high-schooler. Granted, the kids who are just learning English will be in ESL 3 out of 8 periods a day, but I had no doubt it will present its own set of complications and insights.

All in all I’ll have to admit I’m glad for the late start, mostly because aside from the construction projects, due to the fact that there are 20 more 6^th graders than there were last year, we are still currently 20 books short in everything (math, science, social studies, reading) and having to make photocopies of the first units of each book. The books were all ordered from the US but were delayed in Miami for some reason or another and won’t be here for at least another week or two (which, realistically, in Bolivian time, means a month). I bet you can’t wait to read that blog – the one where all the parents complain about why some kids have books and some kids have photocopies…just wait, it’s coming.

I’ve got a lot to do these next two days to get ready for classes to start on Thursday, but I think I’m as ready as I’ll ever be….here’s to hoping I can keep my head above water!